


surprise adoption (but not in the way you're thinking)

by ApatheticRobots



Series: More days to come, new places to go [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28915479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApatheticRobots/pseuds/ApatheticRobots
Summary: "...I wanted to see what the big deal was. This place is so much different than the rest of Jasper and everything else here is boring, so I was trying to find out what’s so special about it.”Huh. Well, the fact that they stood out probably wasn’t good, but he could bring that up with Knock Out later. “So you thought spying on me would be the best way to do that?”“I dunno, man. Not like I’ve got anything better to do.”
Relationships: Breakdown & Miko Nakadai, Breakdown & Windblade, Breakdown/Knock Out (Transformers)
Series: More days to come, new places to go [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097273
Comments: 24
Kudos: 124





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello this is where i take canon out behind the woodshed like you wouldn't believe  
> technically theres only five chapters to this but i intend to write a little more at some point
> 
> this will make next to zero sense if you dont read the first part of the series
> 
> i wrote that thing where breakdown & miko were friends and then i was like "hey but what if" and now here we are. i think "hey but what if" is how 90% of my stories come to exist, actually

Breakdown liked to think he was pretty attentive to his surroundings.

When you were living like he and Knock Out were, in a world where you didn’t belong and would probably not have a very fun time if you were identified for what you were, you kind of had to be. He couldn’t count on both hands the amount of times one or both of them had had to pull some risky maneuver to avoid being seen in their root modes. Three straight years of living on Earth had definitely given him better situational awareness.

In fact, before he’d had to spend so much time keeping an eye on what was going on around him, it probably would have taken him a lot longer to notice he was being watched.

It only ever happened (or, at least, he only ever noticed) when he was out back in the junkyard part of their place, messing with some piece of scrap or working on part of a car that’d been left with him. He’d hear a quiet noise, a mix between a clank and a rattle-- the tell-tale sign of boots on a chain link fence-- and then the staring would start.

He was pretty sure it wasn’t someone watching with malicious intent, given there wasn’t that prickling feeling in the back of his struts he got whenever that sort of thing would happen. He also couldn’t gauge exactly  _ what _ his mystery observer’s intentions were, though. Not without getting a good look at them.

Which he certainly  _ tried _ to do. But as soon as he’d look up from whatever he was working on the perpetrator would vanish. The most he ever caught was a glimpse of dark hair disappearing from his line of sight.

It wasn’t  _ annoying, _ per-say, but it was getting a little tiring.

So he made a plan. It was probably kind of reckless, but at this point he was willing to risk a little for some answers. The next time he went out back and the unknown party scaled his fence and started up staring at him again, he waited a few minutes before dismissing his holoform. There was a startled cry of “HEY!” and he projected it again at the source of the shout. 

Clinging to the fence and still staring at the spot where he’d been a moment prior was a human girl, no older than Jack by the look of her. There was a messy and faded streak of pink through her otherwise black hair that stuck out to him. Knock Out had red in his hair, but he hadn’t realized real humans could have bright colors like that. After a few more seconds of staring she seemed to realize he was there, because she glanced behind her and immediately yelped and fell off the fence upon seeing him. He shoved down the urge to help her up.

“So,” he said, “wanna explain what you’ve been hangin’ around here for?”

“How did you even get over here so fast?” She shook her head furiously. “Nevermind, I don’t gotta tell you anything!!” She scrambled to her feet, and seemed pretty intent on booking it before Breakdown caught her by the back of her shirt and hauled her back. “Ow! Hey, hey, watch the hair, you’re hurting me!”

“Sorry.” He set her down, and she promptly slid down to sit in the dirt. He made sure to stand where he could easily grab her if she tried to get up and run again. “You’re not leaving ‘til you give me some answers, though. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you watching me. So spill it. What’s your problem?”

Scowling at him, she crossed her arms and pouted. “I don’t have to tell you anything.” In a mimicry of her pose, he crossed his arms, though his expression was a lot more stern and a lot less petulant. After a few minutes of him just staring at her, her confidence wavered, and she huffed. “Fine! I wanted to see what the big deal was. This place is so much different than the rest of Jasper and everything else here is  _ boring, _ so I was trying to find out what’s so special about it.” 

Huh. Well, the fact that they stood out probably wasn’t good, but he could bring that up with Knock Out later. “So you thought spying on me would be the best way to do that?”

“I dunno, man. Not like I’ve got anything better to do.”

He frowned. There were still some parts of human culture he didn’t have a super clear understanding of, but he was pretty sure she was the right age to be going to school. And he was also pretty sure that school was in session, because it wasn’t the middle of summer, and it wasn’t a holiday either. Which were the two times he remembered June saying Jack wasn’t in school during. So really, she  _ should  _ have had something better to do, especially since she always showed up in the middle of the day. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“Nah,” she stuck out her tongue. “School’s for losers. I don’t wanna waste my time there.”

“So instead you’d rather waste your time clinging to a fence and staring at me while I work?”

Her expression went pinched. “Look, if you’re gonna call the cops on me for trespassing or something, can you just do it already? I’ve already got a good sob story made up and everything, so let’s just get this over with.”

Breakdown frowned. “Who the hell’s taking care of you, kid?”

“Umm… ask another question?”

Yikes. Very big yikes. Young kids weren’t like freshly minted Cybertronians, they needed a parent (or at the very least a capable adult) to take care of them for a certain amount of time, until they were old enough to take care of themselves. Clearly this kid either didn’t have any of those, or at the very least the ones she did have weren’t very good. Not if they let her wander around all day, hanging out in strange junkyards and skipping school.

Not if her preparations for handling the police involved making up a convincing story. 

Oh, curse Breakdown and his bleeding spark. He could never just sit by and stay out of other people’s business. (Maybe that was why he settled on being a mechanic when he got here. That desire to fix things.)

He sighed. “I’m not gonna call the cops.”

The kid perked up. “Really? You’re not?”

“Nah. Not a huge fan of ‘em.” They’d never done anything to him specifically, but they reminded him a bit too much of the Enforcers back on Cybertron. Abusing their power at the expense of the common folk. Plus they’d nearly dragged Knock Out in for racing more than once and that was really annoying. “I’m Blake. Blake Downey. You got a name, kid?” he asked as he offered her a hand.

Grinning, she took it, and he hauled her to her feet. “I’m Miko. Nice to meet you.” She looked him up and down once. “Yeah, okay, I guess you’re pretty cool.” 

“Oh?”

“Uhuh. You’re big and tough looking, and you’ve got earrings on, and those are pretty cool. Plus I’ve seen your truck.” She grinned wide, eyes bright. “Talk about cool. Not as cool as a monster truck, but I bet you could still do some real damage in that thing!” She punched the air a couple times. “Real heavy duty like!” 

He laughed. “You have no idea. Hey, you wanna come inside for a little while? I can get you some water or… something.” Was it weird for him to invite her in? Probably. Especially because they didn’t actually tend to keep human food in the house. 

Eh, here’s hoping she just didn’t notice.

“Yeah, okay.” 

Welp. Too late to take back the offer.

Miko followed him in through the side door, and took a seat at the dining table while he carefully moved around the kitchen in a way that kept all the various Cybertronian implements hidden from view. Like the energon in the fridge. Or the refinery concealed by the oven. Or the soldering tools shoved haphazardly in the (now unplugged, after an incident involving an accidental button press while there was still stuff inside) microwave. 

“So,” he said, setting down the water glass and taking a seat across from her, “let’s try answering my question this time. Who’s keeping an eye out for you? Got parents or guardians in town?”

Halfway through chugging her water, she set the glass down and scowled at him, a surprisingly vitriolic expression for one so young. “Still none of your business.”

“While you’re sitting in my house, it is my business.” 

“Ughhh,” she groaned, leaning back in her seat and bumping her head against the back of the chair. “Fine. Technically, yes, I have people in charge of me here. But my parents are basically never home ‘cause they’re always on business trips and stuff so I might as well not.” She sounded pretty nonchalant as she said it, but there was a pretty hefty frown on her face.

Breakdown squinted at her. “They just leave you here alone?”

“Yeah. We’re from Japan, but we moved here a little while ago for some reason, but they still had jobs back there so they tend to go away for a really long time. At the start they left me with a babysitter but I scared her off and I guess they just never hired a new one.”

Not that Breakdown had a whole lot of experience with what it was like rearing younglings, but that sounded like pretty irresponsible parent behavior. Just leaving your kid alone to do whatever she wanted while you went off to a whole other country. Especially when you had a kid like Miko, who apparently spent her days skipping school and sneaking into junkyards and talking to strangers.

“It’s okay, though. I’m pretty good at taking care of myself. I have a debit card and the house and stuff are paid for without me having to do anything, and I know how to make people feel sorry for me so they’ll give me stuff.” She grinned. “Plus it means there’s no one here to tell me what to do. And that’s  _ really _ cool.”

Cool, maybe, but not good. Damnit. Breakdown was gonna have to start keeping an eye out for the kid, wasn’t he?

“So hey!” Miko slapped a hand on the table, startling Breakdown out of his thoughts. “You have a really cool truck!” She pointed at him. “Let me see it!”

A really-- oh. His alt-mode. “Well,” he said, briefly checking to make sure there was no mining supplies or anything else incriminating shoved in his backseat or something, “yeah, alright. You can take a look. But no peeking under the hood.”

“Deal!!”

He had to admit, he was a little flattered by how excited she got about an alt he’d always considered a little bland at best. And he’d never really minded the feeling of hands on his chassis as much as Knock Out did. Letting Miko examine his interior and sit on his roof was really not a hassle in the slightest.

Once she’d apparently gotten her fill (and he’d had to refuse taking her on a drive multiple times), she gave him a cheerful wave goodbye and headed out.

He’d kind of thought that was that. She’d sated her curiosity, so she had no reason to come back. Really, he should have known better, even having only interacted with her for as short a time as he did.

Because the next day, around noon, there was the rattling of boots against a chain link fence. This time, though, Miko just climbed all the way over and dropped down into the junkyard proper, trotting over to where Breakdown was taking apart an old engine to salvage what he could from it. She leaned over his shoulder. “What’cha doing?”

Only years of experience living with other mechs stopped him from starting and accidentally braining her with the filter in his hand. “Takin’ this apart.”

“Can I watch?”

He shrugged. “Sure. Just don’t touch anything.”

Miko didn’t say anything as he worked, and Breakdown was quiet, too. This was kind of nice, he supposed. With Knock Out busy during the day (sometimes racing, sometimes finding them energon, usually in class because he’d gone and decided he wanted his title as a doctor to be valid on Earth, too) he’d gotten pretty used to working with just the radio for company. So having someone else around, even if they weren’t really talking, was nice.

“What’s that?”

Breakdown looked up. Technically, she wasn’t touching anything, so he couldn’t actually get upset with her, and he supposed that was on purpose. “Camshaft pulley,” he said. “Carries the timing chain, which turns the camshaft. It operates the intakes and exhaust ports.” 

“Okay,” Miko said. She managed a whole minute of silence before pointing to another part. “And what’s that do?”

They went on like that for a while, Breakdown continuing to take the engine apart and Miko pointing at parts and asking what they did as he unearthed them. He wasn’t sure how much of what he told her she was actually absorbing, but explaining what the parts did was easy, and she seemed to be enjoying listening to him at least. Eventually he’d gotten it broken into all its individual pieces, and started sorting them into piles of useful and scrap to sell or melt down later.

“Now what are you doing?”

“Seeing what I can use and what’s trash.”

“Can I help?”

He glanced up at her. She was bouncing on her heels slightly, eyes wide, and he felt something in his chest go a little tight. “Sure,” he said, gesturing towards a pile of spark plugs. “Go through that. Any of the ones that look burnt or rusty can go in the trash pile. The ones that look clean or new can be used later.”

“These are… spark plugs?”   
  


“Yep.” He set aside the exhaust manifold. “Remember what those do?”

“Um…” She picked up one of the plugs, frowning at it. “They make electricity, and that makes the stuff in the engine catch fire, which powers the pistons or something and makes the car go?”

“A little more complicated, but you’ve got the basic gist of it. Good job,” he said, and she lit up like a beacon at the praise, plopping down beside the pile of spark plugs to start going through them, tossing aside the bad ones and gently setting down the ones that still worked. There was a fierce determination to her work, and Breakdown got that tight feeling in his chest again.

Ah, scrap. 

He’d gone and gotten attached. 

Knock Out was  _ never _ going to let him hear the end of it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usually he preferred to make this as in-and-out of a thing as possible, not really liking being under any kind of scrutiny for very long, but he had a feeling this time was gonna end up being a little different. 
> 
> Mostly because Miko was sitting in one of the chairs along the wall, hands curled into fists in her lap and staring at the floor like she was trying to set it on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok anyways decided im not waiting five days to upload the full thing heres another chapter
> 
> fair warning i dont actually know Anything about the legal system in nevada/the late 80s or early 90s/specifically regarding this kind of child neglect thing. all i know i learned from some cursory google searches and its all a) modern and b) new york centric so. from here on out take any Legal Mumbo Jumbo with a grain of salt  
> im not hear to teach you about adoption laws in the event of child neglect im here to think about the funny robots
> 
> you get these two today and the other three tomorrow

Contrary to popular belief, Breakdown did actually have registration for the shop and his own identity. It was all completely forged (and how Swindle had gotten the documents, he didn’t want to know) but it was legit in the eyes of the American government. Which meant he did sometimes have to do human things like going down to one of the Official Government Buildings and filling out paperwork and stuff. He usually didn’t pay too much attention to what he was filling out-- just cross-referenced the other paperwork he’d filled out at some point to make sure he didn’t accidentally contradict himself or something.

Usually he preferred to make this as in-and-out of a thing as possible, not really liking being under any kind of scrutiny for very long, but he had a feeling this time was gonna end up being a little different. 

Mostly because Miko was sitting in one of the chairs along the wall, hands curled into fists in her lap and staring at the floor like she was trying to set it on fire.

Since he’d first caught her scaling his fence a little under two months ago, she’d come by near daily, sitting herself down near where he was working and asking him questions about whatever it was. As young as she was, she did have a genuine desire to learn, and got especially excited when he talked about stuff exploding or destroying things. A couple weeks prior he’d had to flatten some pieces of sheet metal that he’d pulled from a wreck someone had sold him, and she’d kind of physically bounced up and down excitedly when the hydraulic press in the garage had stopped working and he’d gotten out a hammer (reminiscent of the one built into his frame) to just crush it down manually.

  
He hadn’t seen her in over a week. If he was honest, he’d been pretty damn worried.

“Miko?” he asked, paperwork forgotten as he caught sight of the expression on her face. It was some awful mix between angry and hurt and betrayed and terribly, terribly sad. The worst combination of emotions that could ever show up on a child’s face. She looked up at the call of her name. “What are you doing here?”

Without a word, Miko got up out of her chair and ran over and tackled his legs, wrapping herself around them like some kind of primate. 

“Um.” He reached down and hesitantly set a hand on her head. It wasn’t like this was the first time contact had happened. He’d picked her up to show her the parts of a car she was too short to see, or she’d take a seat on his leg while he explained what a certain tool did, and she’d fallen asleep on him one time, but there was something a little different about this  _ clinging _ than the other times. “Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” an official looking woman in a suit came over. “I’m afraid Miss Nakadai here is a little… emotionally fraught at the moment.” She gave Breakdown a bland smile. Immediately Breakdown disliked this woman. “Do you know her?”

  
“Yeah, I know her,” he said, tucking the folder of papers he’d brought with him under one arm and reaching down with the other to pull Miko off his leg and instead heft her up against his side, where she promptly smushed her face against his shoulder. Primus, was she crying? What in the  _ world _ had happened?? “Mind explaining what’s going on here?”

“Well…” The woman sighed. “The state was made aware of Miss Nakadai’s living situation, and as leaving a child of her age alone for so long decidedly counts as Child Abandonment, the court was forced to get involved. Since her parents are still out of the country, we’ve had to postpone the trial, and I’m afraid she’s been taking the separation and supervision rather hard.”

“They  _ never _ leave me alone,” Miko whispered against Breakdown’s shirt. “It was  _ fine. _ I could take care of myself just fine. Why’d they have to go an’ get involved?”

  
Breakdown’s processor was working overtime. He’d known leaving a kid home alone that long was probably a bad idea, and definitely irresponsible, but he hadn’t known it was actually a  _ crime. _ Nor had he known that the consequences would be so severe. “Okay,” he said, tucking the paperwork into his jacket where they promptly disappeared into his subspace and wrapping his other arm around Miko as well. “What’s gonna happen to her?”

“Well, when her parents do return, they’ll be called into court. A judge will make the final verdict, and she’ll likely become a ward of the state, since she has no other available family or guardians who could take custody of her.”

“Uhuh.” Miko idly reached up to grab and tug at his ponytail. He ignored it. “And what happens to her then? Who’s gonna be keeping an eye on her?”

“Well, it’s possible she’ll be placed in the foster system, but that’s doubtful given her apparent… issues with authority, so the more likely outcome is that she’ll be placed in the custody of a government agent. It all depends on what the judge’s decision is.” She gave him a curious look. “I can give you a pamphlet, if you’d like?” How often did this happen among humans that they had ready-made pamphlets about it?? 

  
“Yeah, that’d be appreciated.”

The woman opened her bag and started rifling through it, eventually pulling out a folded piece of cardstock. “Here you go. Miko, come on, let’s let the nice man read, okay?”

It was a clear request for her to let go, and one she very firmly ignored. Instead she just grabbed at Breakdown’s shirt and shook her head. The woman frowned and moved in a way clearly aiming to grab her. Which  _ no thank you. _ Breakdown tightened his hold and scowled. “It’s fine,” he said. “I can read around her.”

That got him another curious look, but he brushed it off, instead carrying Miko over to the chair she’d been sitting in earlier and sitting down with her still clinging to his side, flipping open the pamphlet and reading through the helpfully outlined sections.

“My parents aren’t bad,” Miko said, again in a whisper so different from her usual exuberant shouting. “They’re not. Everyone keeps saying they are, that they  _ abandoned _ me and  _ neglected _ me, but they didn’t. They had to work. I was fine being left on my own, I could take care of myself. They didn’t have to get involved.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “But it’s not about whether they were good or not.” He sighed, pulling her away just enough to set her on his lap. Without the convenient cloth of his shirt to hide her face in, she promptly started scrubbing at her cheeks to get rid of the streaks down them. “You know how jobs work, right? When you have a job, you have certain tasks you have to do, and if you don’t do those tasks they’ll decide you’re not the right person for the job and you’ll get fired.”

She nodded a couple times.   
  


“Well,” he said, “your parents’ job was to take care of you. To be around when you need ‘em and stop you from getting into trouble. Cook you meals and make sure you go to school and all that stuff,” he said, thinking of what he’d seen June doing for Jack. “And since they didn’t do all that, they’re being fired from their job. Does that make sense?”

“I guess,” she mumbled. “I just wish I didn’t have to go away. They’re gonna make me live with some stranger I don’t know and I’m gonna have to get used to being in a new place all over again right after I just started getting used to being here.”

Breakdown glanced at the pamphlet again, and a certain section caught his eye. “Maybe,” he said, a terribly reckless idea forming in his head, “you won’t.”

She looked up at him curiously.

The woman was, understandably, hesitant.

“We’ll have to run background checks, you understand,” she said, mildly flustered. “And is there-- well, I guess we don’t really need a verification of your familiarity with the child.” Given the way Miko was clinging to him like a particularly stubborn patch of grease, probably not. “Taking in a child is a huge responsibility.” 

“Yeah, I know,” he said, shrugging a bit. It didn’t dislodge Miko in the slightest. “But the pamphlet said it was preferred that the kid go with a neighbor or relative. I’m not related, and we don’t live on the same street, but given that the kid’s been hanging out at my shop for the past couple months, I figure that probably counts, right?” This was an awful idea. Their house was in no way equipped to hold a human inhabitant. He had no idea how to care for a human (except for the dozens of times he’d babysat Jack over the years), much less any idea how to care for a  _ child  _ (except for Jack, who was almost exactly Miko’s age) _. _

But hell, he  _ was _ a bleeding spark, and he’d gotten too attached to the kid to be willing to not only doom her to a life filled with unfamiliar things but also to never see her again. 

So apparently he was adopting.

“Again, in the end, the final decision of what happens to her is up to the judge,” the woman said. “However, you’re correct in that the court prefers it if a child goes with someone they know.” She gave Breakdown a much warmer smile than the one earlier. “And from what I’ve seen, I personally think you’re a fine candidate.”

Well… alright, Breakdown may not have liked her, for the simple fact that she was actively involved with the system that had made Miko cry. But he could respect her, and it was probably good that he had her on his side.

“Alright,” he said. “Good to know. What’s gonna happen to her until that, uh, trial thing?”

“I’m afraid she’ll need to stay in state custody for the time being, but feel free to come by during the day if you’d like to see her.” She patted his arm. “I recommend until then you do some reading on Nevada’s specific laws regarding this sort of thing, as well as perhaps look into some parenting books. I have some titles I can recommend to you.”

“Thanks. I appreciate the help with this.” He glanced down at Miko briefly to see she had fallen asleep, still clinging to him. “I’ve never really done the parenting thing, you know? Got a friend, she’s a single mom, and I’ve kept an eye on her kid while she was at work sometimes, but beyond that…” He grinned, a bit helplessly. “Probably not the best time to admit this to an official, but I’ve got no idea what I’m doing when it comes to taking care of a kid.”

The woman laughed. “Don’t worry, sir. That’s not an immediate dealbreaker. Few parents, even those who become ones though conventional means, know what they’re doing. You’re not alone.” 

“You know, that is actually a comfort.” He paused as the reality finally started setting in. “Hey, uh, you don’t have a phone I could borrow, do you?”

“Sure I do. What for?”

“Well,” he said, carefully dislodging Miko and setting her in one of the plush chairs for her to continue napping. “I didn’t come out here with the intent to adopt a kid. And, uh, well. My husband,” he said, intending to continue with an explanation but not really able to find the words to do so.

“Ah.” Despite his lack of elaboration, the woman seemed to understand. “You can use mine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> poggers to you if you can figure out who the lawyer chick is before i post the next chapter. your hint is that shes not actually a character in prime.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Breakdown.”
> 
> “Yes, dear?”
> 
> There was a sharp sigh over the phone, more static than sound. “Please warn me next time you intend on signing us up to be parents, if you don’t mind?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok ill get the rest uploaded uhhhhhhh eventually. dont worry about it.

“Breakdown.”

“Yes, dear?”

There was a sharp sigh over the phone, more static than sound. “Please  _ warn me _ next time you intend on signing us up to be parents, if you don’t mind?” It wasn’t quite  _ anger _ in Knock Out’s tone. He wasn’t mad, because he didn’t really get  _ mad _ at Breakdown. But it was a hefty amount of disappointment mixed with complete exhaustion at his antics. The kind of tone one perfected after having to deal with a mech like Breakdown, who often thought with his spark and not his processor.

“I don’t really plan on doing it again,” he said. “Didn’t plan on doing it this time either, it’s just-- It’s  _ Miko. _ You know her.”

“I do,” Knock Out said, regretfully. They hadn’t interacted much, given she usually came by during the day when Knock Out wasn’t home, but they’d interacted enough for him to get a pretty good grasp on the girl’s personality. “She’s like a younger, slightly more volatile version of you.”

“So you know I had to.”

“I do,” he repeated. “You big softie.” There was another staticky sigh. “Well, the elders always encouraged me to settle down and start a family. I doubt this is what they meant, but she might as well be a sparkling.” 

“Sorry,” Breakdown said. “I know you never really-- I mean, I  _ don’t _ know, but it never seemed like younglings were really something you were keen on.”

“You’re mostly right. I never wanted ones of my own, not really keen on passing my coding down or whatever, but I don’t have any moral objection to them. Taking care of one that already exists seems like a fine course of action to me.” Breakdown heard some quiet shuffling on the other end of the line. “We’ll have to clean out that second room, though. And rearrange the kitchen to be a little more human-friendly. And finally pay those plumbing bills.”

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about hooking us up to a natural well. Been thinking of doing something similar with the electricity, switching us to solar and doing everything at home. Would certainly make things easier if it was all self-contained, you know? Plus I got a lot of scrap I’m not doing anything with. From the, uh, ride here.”

“Ah. Right. That scrap.” They couldn’t exactly use Cybertronian materials to fix human machines, that would be an awful idea and probably result in some human finding out something they shouldn’t. So the stuff from their various ships that they’d destroyed because there was really no way to hide a fragging spaceship anywhere on Earth (without heavy modification that they did not have the resources to do) was just sitting and gathering dust among the other scrap in the yard. “I suppose it would be good to finally find a use for it.” 

Silence fell for a moment. Then Breakdown spoke again; “I am really sorry for springing this on you with no warning.”

“We’ll be talking about it more at home, but for now, your apology is accepted,” Knock Out said. “I love you.”

Breakdown couldn’t help his stupid grin. “Love you too.”

The line went dead. Breakdown set the phone back on its dock and sighed, shoulders slumping in relief. The woman who’d been waiting a few paces away walked up and gave him a consolatory pat on the shoulder. “I didn’t hear any yelling, so I take it the revelation went okay?” 

“Yep. He’s a little surprised, you know, as he should be. He’s not against it, though.” Breakdown winced. “He’s, uh, he got arrested. Once. For speeding. But it was a while ago, and he hasn’t gotten any tickets since. Is that gonna be a dealbreaker?” He might as well tell her now, before they ran the background checks and all their work was for nothing. 

“Likely not. It’s a small infraction, and it has nothing to do with the mistreatment of a child, so they probably won’t even consider it.”

He relaxed a little bit more. “Thanks. Oh-- I never introduced myself, did I?” He held out a hand. He’d finally gotten shaking hands with people down to a science, and by Primus he was determined to get it right as much as possible. “Name’s Blake Downey.”

The woman smiled, returning the gesture. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Downey. Winnie Blase, I'm Miko's case worker.” As she took his hand, there was the slightest buzz of static. She blinked, glancing down briefly before looking up at him in sudden recognition.

Which… was weird. He let go of her hand.

“Thanks for all your help with this, Miss Blase,” for lack of something better to do, he stuck his hand in his pocket. “I really appreciate it.” 

“It’s no problem,” she said, waving it off. “I hate seeing any young ones in a bad situation. It’s nice to be assured that Miss Nakadai will be going to people who care about her.” She gave Breakdown another smile, and there was something almost… conspiratory? About it? “And people who will treat her well.”

“Um… right.” She was looking like she knew something he didn’t, and it was kind of getting awkward. “Can I… I mean, is it okay if I leave?” He glanced back at where Miko was curled up into a little ball on the chair. “Will she be okay?”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine. If you give me your number, I can call you should anything happen?”

He tried not to look as relieved as he felt. “That’d be appreciated.” When she didn’t move, he glanced around. “Uh, if you’ve got a pen or… something?”

Instead of a reply, she just kept staring at him for a moment.

  
Then there came a ping across a local channel. Breakdown jolted, glancing around a bit to see if Knock Out had… come by? But he had Breakdown’s personal line, and they didn’t like to risk using local channels even if they were nearby each other, there was too high of a chance that it would lead to their discovery. So if it hadn’t been him…

He looked to the woman, who was staring at him expectantly.

“Oh,” he said, straightening up with the sudden revelation of it all. “Um, right.” 

She was definitely laughing at him as he fumbled to put together a return ping and send it over with a link to his personal comm. A moment later there came a ping across  _ that _ channel.

_ [My name’s Windblade, Neutral,]  _ she said.  _ [It’s nice to have a little more company.] _

_ [Yeah, s’pose it is. Breakdown, also Neutral. And my conjunx’s name is Knock Out.]  _ He tilted his head towards the phone.  _ [I have no fragging clue how to raise a human. But I met Miko a while ago,] _ he said along with a few memory files of their various interactions (and all the feelings along with them),  _ [and I hate to see her land somewhere unfamiliar with folks who might not take as good care of her, you know?] _

_ [I understand. My conjunx and I-- her name is Chromia-- had no knowledge on how to raise a human either, when we first arrived. But it’s just so awful seeing the little ones end up in places that treat them so horribly, so we figured it out and we’ve been in something called the fostering program for a little while.]  _ She sent over a datapacket with a quick explanation.  _ [So we can take care of kids who have no one else to care for them. I was planning on making a case that Miko be given to me before you showed up, and while I would have happily taken her, I’m glad you did. We’ve already got three little ones at home, I think four might be one too many. If you need any advice, though, Chromia and I can give you some tips.] _

_ [I’m not even sure how I’m gonna handle one,] _ he said with a slight grin.  _ [But thanks. I think we’ll be needing all the help we can get.] _ He paused.  _ [So you, me, and our conjunxes make four. How many more of us are there?] _ Were there whole sects of Neutral Cybertronians in hiding on Earth? And just how many of them were in Jasper??

_ [I have no idea. You’re the only other one I’ve met. At least, the only one I’ve met and realized was Cybertronian, at least. There’s plenty of folks I could have passed on the street who were truly just holoforms like us.] _

_ [It’s… strange. I know I’ll never really belong here, but sometimes it almost feels like I’ve gone native, you know?] _

_ [I do. I have a flight alt, so it’s not quite as drastic since I can’t travel around by myself, but Chromia says she's definitely noticed it. It's easy to find a place to fit here, isn't it?] _

_ [It really is.]  _ "Thanks again for all your help," he said. "I'll call you if I have any questions."

"And I'll do the same, or if anything changes relating to Miko's case." Windblade grinned. "Have a nice day, Mr. Downey."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyways i love windblade but i also think she was used wrong so im taking her for my own purposes


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "They said I get to go home with you," she said, looking at him warily. "Is that true?"
> 
> "Yep." He crouched down to her level. "I figured since you know me, and we're something like friends, you'd be a little happier coming to live with me and Aston than dragged off to who-knows-where to live with some stranger. Did I figure right?"
> 
> She stared at him for a moment, then her face split into a grin and she tackled him in a hug. "Hell yeah you did!!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooo i dont know anything about the legal system.

The trial process was remarkably easy once it really came down to it.

Since he was just the prospective caretaker, he didn't technically have to be present at the court when the whole thing was going down, except he kind of did because Windblade had commed him a few hours before it was set to start, slightly panicked, saying that Miko was throwing a fit and she was afraid the girl would hurt herself. So Breakdown locked everything up and headed out and only sped when he was sure there was no one around. Getting a speeding ticket right before this would probably not be a fantastic start to things.

He managed to get there before the trial started and also managed to calm Miko down, with a little bit of Windblade's help once he reassured Miko that she was trustworthy. Once the trial did start he didn't really do anything but stand near the door and look intimidating, but it was apparently a comfort, because Miko stayed remarkably respectable throughout the entire thing.

He was grateful that Windblade was there, both in terms of the specific incidents and just in general. There was no direct way that humans could connect. When one human said something about their emotions, or how they felt, or made a promise, you kind of just had to take them at their word. But with Cybertronians, there was no lying in a direct connection. So Windblade was able to see for certain that Breakdown was genuine about his desire to take care of Miko, which meant she was also able to make sure the trial process went as smoothly as possible in his favor.

_ [I may have cheated the system a little bit], _ she admitted over their comm as they talked idly during a part of the trial that was just a bunch of stuff they didn't have to pay attention to.  _ [In a lot of ways. I cheated my way to a degree, technically, did you know it takes more than seven years to become a lawyer?? I wasn't going to wait that long just doing all this boring studying when I could compile a datafile and have all the information right at my digits. So I stayed up for a week or two straight doing that and found enough loopholes to finish law school and all the extra stuff involved in about two years.] _

_ [I mean, hey,]  _ Breakdown said with a glance in her direction,  _ [must mean you're a pretty damn good lawyer if you were able to find enough loopholes to finish getting your degree that quickly.] _

_ [Stop, stop, don't make me laugh right now, the parents' attorney is giving me a dirty look.] _

The parents did try to defend themselves, or rather their attorney tried to defend them on their behalf, but it was pretty useless in the face of Windblade and her overwhelming amount of evidence. So it took maybe two days for the judge to make the verdict and for Miko to be released into Breakdown's care.

"They said I get to go home with you," she said, looking at him warily. "Is that true?"

"Yep." He crouched down to her level. "I figured since you know me, and we're something like friends, you'd be a little happier coming to live with me and Aston than dragged off to who-knows-where to live with some stranger. Did I figure right?"

She stared at him for a moment, then her face split into a grin and she tackled him in a hug. "Hell yeah you did!!"

"Hey, now, where'd you learn that kinda language?"

"Uh, from you. Duh."

"Oh, you did, didn't you. Scrap."

She pulled back and gave him a funny look. "Scrap?"

"Yeah. Uh, it's like… one of those words folks use to replace swears, you know? So you can still say what you mean without saying something inappropriate. I've got a few other alternatives, too, cause I don't think you swearing excessively will look very good on that report they're gonna do on me in a month or so." 

  
“Oh.” Miko frowned for a moment. “What’s wrong with other swears?”

“Oh, boy.” He really had his work cut out for him, huh?

Windblade handed over Miko’s belongings with a quiet  _ [Take care of her] _ and sent them off. The ride back through Jasper was quiet, uneventful, and consisted mostly of Miko alternating between staring out the window and picking at his interior. It was weird having someone who wasn’t his own holoform or Knock Out’s in his backseat. Sure, once in a blue moon he gave June and/or Jack a ride, but June had a bit of an unreasonable attachment to her own ancient stationwagon and preferred to do most of her own driving.

Knock Out was waiting for them when Breakdown pulled in. He found himself once again thankful for his partner’s presence-- while Breakdown had been staying near enough to be on call for the trial if he had to be, Knock Out spent those few days making the house suitable for a human. Relocating all the Cybertronian implements, clearing out the unused room, stocking the fridge and cabinets. 

Breakdown kissed his cheek as he greeted them, to which Miko made a disgusted sound.

“Get used to it, squishy,” Knock Out said, pulling away and grinning at her. “We’re not going to stop acting as we are because of your delicate constitution.”

“Adults are so gross,” she grumbled as she pulled her bag out of Breakdown’s trunk and started hauling it inside. He suppressed the urge to go help her (she could clearly handle it herself, and definitely would not appreciate him trying to do it for her) and instead waited outside with Knock Out for a moment longer.

Said mech walked over to where he was parked and hopped up to sit primly on his hood. “We’re going to have to tell her eventually, you know,” he said, running a hand across Breakdown’s plating to convey what he meant. “She won’t be able to live with us long before she figures out something’s amiss. Especially being such a curious child as she is. And I would rather she learned under our terms than by happenstance.”

“I know. And we will tell her. Eventually.” He moved over to stand in front of Knock Out, bracing one hand on his own hood to lean forward and give his partner a proper kiss. “I’d just like to give her a little time to get adjusted before we spring something like this on her.” 

“Of course.” Knock Out lifted his arms to wind them around Breakdown’s shoulders, sighing. “You’re worried.”

Breakdown gave a weak laugh. “Is it that obvious? Of course I am. I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m terrified of messing up, and this is a pretty darn big responsibility that I’ve never really had to handle before. If I mess up, it won’t just affect me, it’ll affect the kid too.” That was the really terrifying part. He had nothing against failure. In his opinion, sometimes a person needed to fail once in a while. Both as a learning experience and to keep them humble. But if he failed at this, it  _ wouldn’t _ just be him facing the consequences of his mistakes. It’d hurt Miko too.

“Dear, I think it’s that concern that makes you precisely the right person to do this.” His partner set a hand on his cheek, and he leaned into the contact. One good thing about the holoforms is that they just sort of fit together better than their real bodies. Humans were just designed to hold one another. “The fact that your primary concern is not your own success but rather how it will affect your child? Not that I have much more experience, but from my talks with June about the subject and from everything that I’ve seen, that’s the kind of thing that marks a good parent. Not their aptitude for the subject. Simply their intentions.”

Trying very hard to pretend he wasn’t about to start crying, Breakdown sniffed and leaned forward to rest his head against his partner’s. “You always know just what to say.”

“Of course I do.” Knock Out pat his shoulder a couple times. “Now come on. We had best get back inside before our charge gets curious and starts looking in places she shouldn’t. Perhaps we should invest in some child locks,” he muttered the last part. 

“We can do that tomorrow.” 

There was a shout from inside of “Hey! Why’s this door locked??” that immediately sent both of them hurrying in to stop Miko from getting into whatever she should definitely not be getting into.

Despite how much more complicated Breakdown knew their life had just become, he found himself grinning anyways. To think he’d been worried when he first arrived that he’d have to spend his entire life on Earth alone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It took them a lot longer to actually find a good time to tell Miko the truth about what they were than they would’ve preferred.
> 
> It wasn’t on purpose, really, things just… kept coming up. Distractions kept happening.
> 
> ...So before they knew it a year had passed and they’d been playing their roles as Normal Humans more convincingly than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok last chapter. its mentioned but i just want to clarify, there's a year timeskip between this chapter and the last, and a four year gap between this chapter and the original fic.

It took them a lot longer to actually find a good time to tell Miko the truth about what they were than they would’ve preferred.

It wasn’t on  _ purpose,  _ really, things just… kept coming up. Distractions kept happening. Turns out it was kind of hard to get a kid enrolled in school when every single factor on Earth (and a few sourcing from the fact that they came from beyond it) seemed to be stacked against them. Plus there was the whole thing with Miko getting adjusted. No matter how casual about everything she may have acted, she was still just a kid, and she hadn’t exactly had a stellar upbringing before they’d taken her in. 

So before they knew it a year had passed and they’d been playing their roles as Normal Humans more convincingly than ever.

Except they gave up trying to keep eating food after the first month or so. And Knock Out had gotten caught downing a cube of Energon a week later, but they managed to brush that off with the excuse that they were trying a new diet thing. Which she made a face at, but at least she stopped asking questions.

Eventually it came down to it that there was nothing actually stopping them from telling Miko the truth. Besides their own (read: Breakdown’s) anxieties, of course.

Could you really blame him for his nervousness? This was kind of a  _ really _ big deal, here. Like, they’d been pretending they weren’t what they really were for four whole years kind of big deal. Which, granted, was not all that long in the grand scheme of their millennia-long lifespans, but it was a damn long time to be disguising one’s identity to the general public. And since bringing Miko home, neither of them had really been keen on leaving her alone long enough to go out into the middle of nowhere and stretch their plating a bit. So by the time they both sat down and near-simultaneously agreed that they needed to just rip the metaphorical bandaid off, Breakdown was starting to feel pretty cooped up having been stuck in his alt-mode for so long.

So late-afternoon one Saturday he loaded Miko up into his backseat, gave her the excuse of a road trip and a surprise, and headed out into the Nevada desert with Knock Out trailing behind him.

They headed towards a spot they both frequented, one that you couldn’t see from the main road but wasn’t impossible to get to, in case someone  _ did _ find them and they needed to justify their presence out there, at least they wouldn’t have to justify how they got there too. Breakdown pulled to a halt (and Knock Out parked beside him) and stepped out of his front seat, sighing. Now that he was out here and away from town he was starting to get a genuine itch under his plating to let it breathe.

“Sooo,” Miko said as she trotted up to stand next to him, “wanna tell me what we’re out here for?”

“Right.” He cleared his throat. “Um, okay. Miko.” Knock Out stepped up beside him. “We have, uh… Something we gotta tell you.”

She tilted her head, looking at him with a skeptical grin. “If you try and tell me you’re actually secretly my biological parents or something, I’m gonna have to call your bluff, and not because you’re both guys. I am  _ way _ too definitely-Japanese to be either of yours.” 

“What? No, that’s not--” He huffed. “Miko, listen to me, this is serious.” Breakdown’s tone seemed to get through to her, and her smile faded. Kneeling, he set his hands on her shoulders, and looked her in the eyes. (Eye contact was for important conversations.) “I need you to remember that no matter what, the both of us love you very much, alright? And I promise, we would never hurt you.”

Miko’s grin returned, though somewhat shakily. “Okay, kinda starting to scare me here. What’s goin’ on?”

“Just… remember what I said.” 

Backpedaling until he stood at Knock Out’s side, he took his partner’s hand and-- giving him a nod-- dismissed his holoform. Miko barely had time to make a surprised sound at their simultaneous disappearances before Breakdown was activating his transformation sequence, pulling himself up into his root mode for the first time in a long time. He couldn’t help but flex his plating out a bit, reveling in the feeling of being able to move so freely. A quick glance at Knock Out revealed his partner doing the same.

He glanced back at Miko, bracing himself for whatever he might see there.

Even knowing it was coming didn’t help ease the pain of seeing the fear in her expression. He grimaced, kneeling down and reaching out for her. “Miko, it’s still us--”

She  _ flinched. _

Breakdown drew his hand back instantly, cringing, spark virtually tearing itself in two as she flinched away from him. Screw watching Knock Out drive away all those years ago,  _ this _ was the worst feeling in the world. Seeing his own kid be  _ scared  _ of him. His servos were shaking as he tried in vain to hold them still.

“Don’t lose yourself yet,” Knock Out murmured in his audial as he stepped up behind Breakdown, lightly resting his servos on Breakdown’s shoulders to steady him before looking back over at the girl standing nearby. “Miko. Are you alright?”

She glanced up at him, then looked back at Breakdown. Stared for a moment. Then; “...Dad?”

His expression split into a relieved grin. “Yeah,” he said, voice crackling with static. “Yeah, um. We wanted to wait to show you the truth until you were a little, uh, more settled. And then there was just never a very good time. But this is… who we are. What we are.” Hesitantly, she walked over to them, and he held deathly still as she reached up and set her hands on his servo. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. We were-- well,  _ I _ was scared. Of what you might think. I know we’re, um, we might look a little threatening. But like I said; we would  _ never _ hurt you.” 

Miko patted his hand a couple times. Then looked up at him, and a second later, her slightly stunned expression turned to one of pure, unbridled excitement. “Oh my God,” she said, “my dads are  _ giant robots. _ ”

“...Yes,” he said. “Technically, we’re Cybertronians. From the planet Cybertron.”

A gasp. “Giant  _ alien _ robots??”

Breakdown laughed quietly, pulling his servo away from where she was holding onto it just long enough to instead spread it out in a clear offer to lift her up. She clambered onto his palm and after a quiet “hold on” he got to his pedes, holding her up so they were eye level.

_ “Woah,” _ she whispered, looking around with wide eyes. “You guys see this all the time??”

“Well, when we’re in our root modes, at least.” Knock Out moved to stand at his side, reaching up to poke at Miko’s midsection (mindful of his claws) and make her giggle. “In alt-mode-- that is, vehicle mode-- we see more from the height of our windshields or headlights, so we can actually see where we’re going. Depends on the mech,” he said. “And it gets a  _ lot _ more complicated when you start getting into flight alts or alts that  _ aren’t _ vehicles. Let me tell you, it’s very hard trying to have a conversation with a microscope.”

“We also see from a shorter height when we’re in our holoforms. That’s the, uh, ‘us’ you knew. Very convincing holograms to let us blend in with other species.” He briefly projected his own holoform onto his shoulder, gave Miko a wave, then dismissed it again. “So, um, any questions?”

“ _ So _ many questions!!” Miko leaned forward and planted her hands on his chest to keep from falling. “Why did you guys come to Earth? What’s Cybertron like? Why did you guys disguise yourselves as humans? How long have you been here? How many of you even are there? Did you guys take me in just because you wanted to do weird alien experiments on me or something? What are your guys’s actual names? Is this why you guys never eat food?”

Carefully, Knock Out reached up to cover her mouth with the tip of one digit. She fell silent at the gesture.

  
Breakdown frowned. It was kind of jammed in the middle among all the other questions, but one part stuck out to him. “No, we didn’t adopt you because we wanted to do weird experiments on you. Where in the world did you get that idea?”

Miko’s excitement seemed to dampen and she shrugged. “I mean-- I don’t know. That’s always what aliens do, isn’t it? They come down just to study humans? I saw it on an episode of the Twilight Zone one time. They came to Earth and tricked the humans into fighting each other and then they just watched. So I just…” She sat down in Breakdown’s palm. “I don’t know. Thought it might’ve been for some reason like that.”

“Of course it wasn’t. Miko,” he reached up with his free hand to nudge her head up, “we adopted you because we cared about you, and wanted you to have a good home, with folks you knew and folks who would treat you well. No ulterior motives behind it.”

She looked up at him mournfully. “You promise?”

Careful not to accidentally crush her or anything, he brought her close and tucked her against one shoulder in the best approximation of a hug he could manage at this size. She clambered up out of his palm and splayed herself out against his plating. “I promise. Cross my spark.”

“...What’s a spark?”

Knock Out piped up to answer, probably looking for any chance to use his knowledge on the Cybertronian form. “Our sparks are like our hearts. They’re what power us, and what make us who we are. Without ‘em, we’re just empty shells.”

“Oh.” She glanced down at his chest. “Can I see yours?”

“Uh, maybe another time,” he said. “They’re kinda… not something that you really show a person. Eventually. Want me to keep answering questions?”

She nodded enthusiastically, pushing herself up to seat herself on his shoulder properly.

“Alright,” he made a mental checklist, “Cybertron is a technological planet. Everything there is made of machines, or something metallic if it’s not sentient, including our versions of plants and animals. We came to Earth because the people of Cybertron had gotten into a disagreement about the way things should be run, and there was a war starting between the two sides; Autobots and Decepticons. Neither of us wanted anything to do with it. So, entirely separately, we hopped onto ships and got as far away from Cybertron as we could. Which landed us here, on Earth.”

“I didn’t land in Jasper,” Knock Out said. “Though he did. Rather, I landed in an entirely different part of the world. It took me months to find my way here. Which is why my vehicle mode is built a little different than his, with the steering wheel being on the ‘wrong side.’”

“At this point, we’ve been here almost half a decade. About four years. When we got here, we decided to disguise ourselves as humans ‘cause we couldn’t be sure how they’d deal with seeing big ol’ things like us just wandering around. Plus, if the war did end up reaching Earth, we didn’t want to be discovered and dragged into it. As far as we know, there’s only four of us; me and your pops, then two others named Windblade and Chromia. You’ve met Windblade, actually, she was the lawyer who was in charge of your case back then.”

Recognition dawned on Miko’s face. “I remember that lady! You mean she was secretly a giant alien robot too??”

  
“Hah. Yep. We’ve kept in contact since we met.” She scooted a bit closer to his helm, and he lowered his voice so as not to hurt her ears by talking too loud and too close. “Yes, we don’t eat food because it’s kind of uncomfortable to do so in our holoforms, instead we need energon to survive, which is that blue stuff you’ll see us drink. As for our names,” he grinned, “I’m Breakdown. And he’s Knock Out.”

Knock Out offered her a digit to shake. “It’s nice to  _ properly _ meet you, Miko.”

“This is so cool,” she whispered as she examined his claw. “I’m guessing I probably shouldn’t tell anyone, right?”

“We’d appreciate it if you didn’t,” Breakdown admitted. “It’d make things a lot more complicated.”

“Ughhh fine,” she stuck her tongue out. “Lame. But fine. I get it, I guess. In the movies where the aliens aren’t the bad guys, the government people usually don’t like them very much. I wouldn’t want you guys getting experimented on either.”

“I’m not too keen on the idea, no.” He gently took hold of her and set her down on the ground, then knelt down in front of her. “Are you okay with… all of this?”

“I mean, it was a little scary at first,” she admitted, playing with one of his digits, “but once I realized you guys were just  _ you _ it was a lot less scary. I mean, yeah you’re still giant robots and it’s still a  _ little _ bonkers, but I know you guys wouldn’t actually try an’ squish me. Plus I also know how big of a softie you are. Hard to be scared when I’ve seen you crying ‘cause of some show on the TV.”

Breakdown gave her a pout. “I know I’m a sap, but you don’t have to rub it in my face.”

Miko burst into giggles, laughing for a moment before catching her breath. Her expression turned more somber. “It’s weird,” she said. “And I think it’s gonna be weird for a while. But it’s not  _ bad. _ And I promise I’m not gonna run away and snitch as soon as you turn your backs or anything.”

“Well, that’s appreciated,” Knock Out muttered. Breakdown gently whacked his arm. 

“You guys… aren’t gonna leave me, right? Like, if the war thing ends and you can go home again, you’ll take me with you?” She stared up at him, eyes wide.

“Even if the war ends, neither of us really want to go back to Cybertron. Something you gotta understand is that there’s all sorts of expectations there. On who you gotta be, what kinda job you gotta do. The war was kind of trying to fix that, but it’s doubtful that either side is gonna give us complete freedom to do whatever we want. And there’s always gonna be mechs giving us bad looks just because of who we are. We like it here a lot better.” He carefully reached forward to brush a digit against her cheek. “So no. I promise you, Miko, we will  _ never _ leave you. No matter what happens.”

Miko gave a quiet sniffle, then reached up and tugged at his hand. “Hey, can you do that hologram thingy again? Where it makes you look like a person and stuff? There’s something I wanna do.” 

Without a moment’s hesitation, Breakdown projected his holoform a few paces away. As soon as he was solid Miko was running forward and tackling him around the middle, burying her face in his shirt. He instantly moved to crouch down and wrap his arms around her. “I’m not leaving,” he said quietly, and felt her hold tighten. “I promise.”

A moment later, another presence joined the hug, with Knock Out projecting  _ his _ holoform and wrapping an arm around each of them. Breakdown leaned over Miko’s head to give him a quick kiss.

“Ugh, seriously?” she muttered, without any actual disgust, “I’m right here.”

Knock Out laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry, were you feeling left out?” He tilted his head down to press a plethora of kisses on Miko’s head. She giggled, attempting to shove at him, but found the effort futile with how she was trapped against Breakdown. “Dear, I think we need to give our girl more affection, it seems she’s not getting enough for her taste.”

_ “Nooooo!!” _

“That so? Better make sure we fix that.”

Miko’s protests were pretty fruitless, especially considering she was trying very hard not to laugh and failing the whole time she was giving them. Eventually she managed to extract herself from the group hug, though stayed close, one hand gripping each of their arms.

“Um,” she said quietly, “thanks. For… taking care of me and stuff. You guys are pretty good dads.” She grinned, and her tone turned cheeky. “Even if you’re giant alien car robots.”

Breakdown smiled, moving his arm to wrap around her shoulders in a half-hug. Knock Out mimicked the pose on the other side.

“Yeah, well, you’re a pretty good kid,” he said. “Even if you are just a squishy human.”

  
She laughed, and though the sun had long since set and the desert could be decidedly considered “chilly” at this point, Breakdown and his spark felt nothing but warm. 


End file.
